It wasn’t a wave, it was an “ebb tide,” the House minority leader says.
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., claimed that even though Democrats lost control of the Senate; lost governorships of even liberal states like Massachusetts, Illinois, and Maryland; and are expected to occupy the fewest seats in Congress in nearly 80 years, last Tuesday’s midterms were no wave for the GOP.
“I do not believe what happened the other night is a wave,” Pelosi told Politico. “There was no wave of approval for the Republicans. I wish them congratulations, they won the election, but there was no wave of approval for anybody. There was an ebbing, an ebb tide, for us.”
Pelosi’s sentiment is contradicted by a pair of new Gallup polls. One poll found that 53 percent of Americans surveyed want the Republican Party to have more influence over the direction of the country than President Obama. Just 36 percent wanted Obama to have more influence. This is largest difference Gallup has found to this question, and the gap has widened since mid-2012.
The second poll found the Democratic Party’s favorability rating fall to a record low of 36 percent, a steep drop from just a couple months ago, when their favorability rating was 42 percent. Meanwhile the GOP’s favorability is 42 percent (a steady increase since the government shutdown of 2013). Unfavorable ratings aren’t much different: The GOP has a 52 percent unfavorable rating while Democrats have a 58 percent unfavorable rating.
Sorry not sorry, Pelosi, but Republicans have been building a wave of approval all year, and Democrats have been collapsing, not merely “ebbing.”
